I’m writing this, waiting in DFW airport for my final flight home, after traveling 20 hours from Australia. Obviously, my experience and time in the Southern Hemisphere is fresh on my mind. It hasn’t fully set in that I am back home, in a different country, but soon enough it will.
Surprisingly, unlike many stories I’ve heard from other students who went abroad, I was not overwhelmed with sadness while leaving. I actually was very excited the entire time, to see my family, my friends, and the place I grew up, all while being able to share the amazing memories I’ve made while abroad. Leaving Australia, plus the friends and routine I made there, is hard. But coming home, I would argue, is the most fundamental part of a valuable study abroad experience.
Study abroad is not merely about photos and sightseeing. It’s not about taking a vacation from school and home. It’s not about being a “tourist” in the traditional sense; observing, following travel guides, and relaxing. It is a deeply personal journey. It’s about learning how certain environments affect you, what you like and don’t like about them, and how you respond. In full honesty, I didn’t enjoy my study abroad location like I thought I would. But I didn’t complain or reduce my experience because of this. Instead I sought travel to other places, looked harder for things I enjoy within that city, and created revised plans to try a new type of city for another semester abroad.
The illusion of study abroad is that it is always a serene, picture-perfect experience, that the city you visit is the one you’ll fall in love with, or everyday feels like a fairytale. Very rarely is it like this. But that was never the point. Within this experience, I found what I liked and didn’t like. I reduced my preferences to something more concrete, and accurate to my personality. And now, I have this experience behind me to further create decisions about where I want to go, who I want to be, and the lifestyle I want to pursue.
This brings me back to an earlier point, that the most important part of study abroad is coming home. When you come home, you view things differently. You face similar experience, routines, and places, the ones that are fond to you, of course, but you extend the personal development you faced abroad to interpret your daily life differently. Comparing these differences, and rebuilding the foundation of your daily life is the most rewarding part of the entire experience.
Always ask yourself why you want to study abroad. Clearly state your goals and apply lessons practically. The experience is worth it. But that value is completely dependent on how you apply that experience coming home.
